Department of Health and Social Care

Social Services: Career Development

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to help ensure long term career development for people employed in social care; and what assessment he has made of the correlation between career development and (a) recruitment and (b) retention of social care staff.

Gillian Keegan: Evidence conducted by the sector shows that access to training and development can have a positive impact on recruitment and retention. Research undertaken by Skills for Care last year found that providing training reduces care worker turnover from 37% to 29%. To help raise career prospects in social care, the Government announced new investment of at least £500 million in new workforce measures over three years, delivering new career pathways, hundreds of thousands of training opportunities and wellbeing support.The Government will continue to support a wide range of apprenticeships within social care. These provide opportunities for people to train when they join the sector and options to progress onto higher apprenticeships into roles including social work and nursing.

Department of Health and Social Care: Written Questions

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to Question 41808 on Coronavirus: vaccination, tabled on  3 September  by the hon. Member for Brighton Pavilion.

Edward Argar: I refer the hon. Member to the answer of 11 October to Question 41808.

Social Services

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to expand housing-with-care options as part of the Government's social care reforms.

Gillian Keegan: The Government’s plan for health and social care, announced on 7 September, recognised the important role of housing in providing care and support to people in the community. There is clear evidence that the right housing arrangements can deliver improved outcomes and meet people’s preferences to remain in their own home. We will invest in supported housing, including housing-with-care, as well as exploring other innovative housing solutions to support more people to live independently at home for longer, with personalised care and support. We will continue to work closely with the sector, including as part of the white paper on adult social care reform which will be published later this year.

Home Care Services

Giles Watling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the Government's policy is on the role of housing-with-care within the social care system.

Gillian Keegan: The Government’s plan for health and social care, announced on 7 September, recognised the important role of housing in providing care and support to people in the community. There is clear evidence that the right housing arrangements can deliver improved outcomes and meet people’s preferences to remain in their own home. We will invest in supported housing, including housing-with-care, as well as exploring other innovative housing solutions to support more people to live independently at home for longer, with personalised care and support. We will continue to work closely with the sector, including as part of the white paper on adult social care reform which will be published later this year.

Special Educational Needs

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to tackle backlog in needs assessments to ensure that disabled children can access effective health support.

Gillian Keegan: We are working with the Department for Education and NHS England and NHS Improvement to improve the provision of health and care services for disabled children. Children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) who require additional provision will receive an Education Health and Care (EHC) plan assessment. The SEND Regulations 2014 make clear that local authorities must complete an EHC plan assessment within twenty weeks after the request is received unless exceptional circumstances apply. The Department for Education monitors local authority performance on EHC plan assessments to establish where there are long-standing delays and provide support. This could include training for staff, extra monitoring or engagement with partners to improve joint working.

Disability: Children

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure the effectiveness of NHS support for disabled children (a) during covid-recovery and (b) generally.

Gillian Keegan: We are working with the Department for Education and NHS England and NHS Improvement to improve the provision and effectiveness of health services for disabled children. To tackle the elective backlog as part of COVID-19 recovery, an additional £1 billion this year and £8 billion over the next three years has been allocated to reduce waiting times for patients, including disabled children.As we enter the recovery phase following the outbreak, we aim to have clear oversight of local areas’ performance in delivering special education needs and disabilities (SEND) services. Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission re-started their revisit programme of areas where SEND services received a written statement of action in April and full inspections in June.

Cabinet Office

Prime Minister: Flags

Justin Madders: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, which companies have supplied Union Jack flags to the Prime Minister's Office since 2019.

Justin Madders: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of the Union Jack flags purchased by the Prime Minister's Office in each of the last two years were manufactured in the UK.

Michael Ellis: Downing Street flags are supplied by JW Plant and by The Flag Consultancy. I understand these companies manufacture their flags in the United Kingdom.